Use BackType to Be a Better PR Pro
Dear PR Person: Excuses for not doing supremely excellent work are dwindling yet again, thanks to a new service called BackType.
BackType lets you “find, follow and share comments from across the web.” Whenever you fill out the “URL” field in a blog’s comment form, BackType tracks it. If you’re pretty prolific online, use BackType to keep tabs on your past conversations.
And it goes one better, in terms of Blogger Relations: BackType also allows you to track and subscribe to some of the most influential folks on the Web, as shown in the screenshot accompanying this post.
So now you can NOT ONLY read these influencer’s blogs, but know what other blogs THEY read — and what’s on their minds. Why wouldn’t you do this? It’s all about relevancy, recency and respect: by reading their own recent blog posts as well as their recent comments on other blogs, as a PR pro you show a true interest in your “target.” You learn how to not waste their time.
Additionally, you get a good sense for the influencer’s own favorite blogs. So you can try getting a “hit” at one of these 2nd-tier blogs, feeling confident that it will be seen by your ultimate target.
Example: “Michael Arrington posts a lot of comments at Signal vs. Noise, mathewingram.com, VentureBeat and Online Media Cultist, et al. If I get a hit at Online Media Cultist before I even approach Arrington, he may be more likely to listen to my pitch when the time comes, because he’s seen that a blogger he respects has already written something.”
Plus, you can get a good feel for the types of content that inspire your “targeted” blogger to react in the first place.
All of this advice is not meant to create a fresh corps of “stalkerazzi” but merely to supplement the solid research the PR pro should engage in before ever reaching out to a blogger in the first place.
Go. Do good things.
Posted on: December 4, 2008 at 2:57 pm By Todd Defren
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Twitter Comment by @JustObserving (BRIAN SIMPSON)
RT @conosco: #LINK PR Squared: Use BackType to Be a Better PR Pro (via Blog) [link to post]
– http://twitter.com/JustObserving/statuses/1108381010
– Posted using Chat Catcher
OK – I’ve been using it for x3 weeks now and it’s like crack cocaine for Online PR folks. Totally uber-useful!! Thanks again for the great steers provided…
OK – I’ve been using it for x3 weeks now and it’s like crack cocaine for Online PR folks. Totally uber-useful!! Thanks again for the great steers provided…
@malcolm coles: Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to obtain all the comments made on a particular blog — but we do support (new) comments made after we add that property to BackType. If you find that we don’t support blogs that you contribute to, you can submit them to http://www.backtype.com/addblogs and we’ll add them ASAP.
Thanks for your comment.
At first I was amazed when I came across it – seemed a fantastic service and very fast at finding comments. But then I decided it wasn’t quite comprehensive enough – it doesn’t seem to track all my comments. Not sure why? Seems better with newer ones than older ones …
Thanks again everyone for the kind words.
@Mike Volpe — we’re aware of that limitation and will be rolling out functionality very soon to support multiple bloggers using the same URL
Great tool. Will link tomorrow in one of my daily roundup posts.
Todd,
Great post! As a PR student, it is very important to stay connected to the people I look up to in the business. There is no better way to learn how to do as the Roman’s do, per se, than to read what they have to say.
Also, this site will put me in check as far as my voice in the blogosphere. It’s a healthy reminder to stay active and speak up!
Stacey Stewart
PS… one issue with this is that if multiple people are leaving comments all linking back to the same URL (as would be the case with a company or team blog) there is not a good way to split up the comments as being from different people.
It’s rare that I read a blog and find a genuinely useful piece of knowledge that I have not already heard of or tried. But you did just that. Nice work!
I’m not a PR pro, but I do think that the comments are an oft overlooked source of great info. I use co.mments.com to track conversations that take place where I’ve left tracks. But I’m interested in this service to help me find relevant conversations where I’ve yet to trod. Thanks!
Todd – PR professionals should also check out http://www.samepoint.com, a conversational search engine that organizes results based on point of discussion. Both services allow you to find relevant, current conversations. The rest is up to you.
hey todd – BackType rocks. i hear what you’re saying about the “stalkerazzi” though. should be used sensibly. another thought is “group think” – the temptation is to let the tool do your finding and thinking for you, and there’s a danger that you’ll only ever get a restricted worldview… like the cool kids at the back of the class who miss all the good new stuff at the front… what do you think?
Todd – Backtype also supports the findings of a recent Rubicon Conuslting report that showed: “About 80% of the user-
generated content on the web, including comments and questions, is created by less
than 10% of web users, a group we refer to as the most frequent contributors (MFCs). But despite the low content creation rates, online communities have enormous
influence on almost all web users. Online comments and reviews posted by the
enthusiasts are second only to word of mouth as a purchase driver for all web users.
Those personal reviews are far more influential than official reviews posted by a
website or magazine, or information posted online by a manufacturer. This means the old idea of “influencers” is confirmed and explained. The most frequent contributors are the influencers, and they have a strong influence on purchase decisions because they write most of the online recommendations and
reviews.”
Two things to note. First, if PR is about influencing the influencers, then Backtype is another great tool for helping to understand where influence lies.
However, does it not also demonstrate that in order to be an influencer oneself (personally or as a business) then you need to be a contributor. However, simply upping your volume of comments with no thought to where or what you are saying is just spam.
But isn’t this a key role of social media PR? To help clients make more frequent, more targetted, more informed contributions to the most appropriate online communities?
Twitter Comment by @mikepilarz (Mike Pilarz)
RT I’m using it now! If you’re in PR you should be too @kgaffney anyone used this? [link to post]
– http://twitter.com/mikepilarz/statuses/1040927943
– Posted using Chat Catcher (http://www.chatcatcher.com/)
Twitter Comment by @wisepr (wisepr)
RT @mediabistro: Potentially great tool for PR: BackType lets u find, follow/share comments from bloggers across the web: [link to post]
– http://twitter.com/wisepr/statuses/1040386437
– Posted using Chat Catcher (http://www.cha...
Arrington respects my stuff? That’s good to know
Great piece, I keep meaning to really delve into BackType, so this is good excuse
Thanks for the write-up, Todd. It’s exciting to see the various uses of our product, especially in disciplines like PR. Also, we’ll be releasing a small “recommendations” page soon to help people find the comment authors they should be following on BackType. Hopefully, that will help remove some work for professionals looking to find influencers, etc.
@Danny Brown, @Kyle: Thanks for all your support!
What a great tool – thanks for sharing and the quick, practical example. I’m sold!
Twitter Comment by @leximo (Ian)
Use BackType to Be a Better PR Pro:
Dear PR Person: Excuses for not doing supremely excellent work are dw.. [link to post]
– http://twitter.com/leximo/statuses/1038986507
– Posted using Chat Catcher (http://www.chatcatcher.com/)
Todd,
Haven’t commented in a while, but I’m still reading. Just wanted to say thanks for sharing so much useful info with the community at large. Many agency principals wouldn’t want to share info that will help competitors (like me) improve, too. I applaud you for focusing on furthering the craft community-wide, not just your own business interests (although I’m sure what you’re doing helps there, too!)
I swear to God, Defren, you must be going through my blog archives…
Been a huge fan of BackType since its inception, and it’s always on my Recommended Tools list whenever I’m asked how to use social media more effectively for PR/branding.
Cheers, here’s hoping others pick up on its benefits
Hurrah! Thanks for this, Todd. I’ve been trying to figure out how to find the sort of 1st tier contacts, since blogs are the gate keepers to many other forms of content now. This is a great way to do that! Thanks again.
I’m a HUGE fan of BackType for PR and overall brand monitoring. It has paid off huge dividends (so much I made a little movie about it on my blog, eh gads).
Combine BackType with something like Spy and you are going to truly find some great conversations in which you (or your client) should be involved.
/kff
Twitter Comment by @ScottHepburn (Scott Hepburn)
@tdefren says “Use BackType to Be a Better PR Pro” Damn good advice and the best synopsis of BackType I’ve seen yet: [link to post]
– http://twitter.com/ScottHepburn/statuses/1038783444
– Posted using Chat Catcher (http://www.ch...